Fair City 's Rodrigo Ternevoy has opened up over how he thought he would die after contracting sepsis on a flight to Brazil last year.
The actor recalled being left in severe pain in a hospital bed with no diagnosis for two weeks and feared he would not survive.
Rodrigo, who plays abuse victim Cristiano San Martin in the RTE soap, needed morphine to numb the agony before doctors discovered he had sepsis in the lung area.
Lifting the lid on the horrific episode, he told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It happened so suddenly. I was working in RTE on Friday. I had a week off so I flew to Brazil.
“I got this pain in my chest that wouldn’t go away halfway through the flight. I thought I was having a heart attack."
Rodrigo revealed he was in hospital for two months and the producers had to write him out of the show.
He said: “There was surgery and it took them two weeks to figure out what was really wrong with me. I had to take morphine because the pain was unbearable. It definitely crossed my mind that I was going to die.
“There were moments where I thought if I was going to be in such severe pain that I would have preferred to die.
“I was surrounded by all of the best doctors and nobody could tell me if I was going to get better.”
Rodrigo also feared he wouldn’t be able to return to Ireland – and he was terrified of flying in case the same thing happened again.
He added: “I had four days after being released from hospital before flying home. My husband was with me – I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone.
“I believe in the universe and destiny and I think everything happens for a reason. If I can go through all of that and remain smiling, there is nothing that I can’t face.”
Rodrigo made headlines when his Fair City character Cristiano was mentally and physically abused by his boyfriend Will.
He revealed: “I was only expecting members of the LGBT community to get in contact with me because it was a gay storyline.
“But a lot more straight people got in touch. I got over 400 private messages after the episode showing the full physical abuse.”
